When Ruby Mae went down to breakfast the next morning, she was surprised to find Mr. Halliday sitting in the parlor, staring down at the floor. Photographs lay at his feet like a strange, patchwork carpet.
“Good morning, Ruby Mae!” Mr. Halliday said cheerfully.
“Did you take all these pictures?” Ruby Mae asked in amazement.
“Oh, this is just the tip of the iceberg.” Mr. Halliday hooked his thumbs in his suspenders, contemplating the floor. “I was just trying to sort the wheat from the chaff, if you know what I mean.”
“Can’t say as I do.”
“It means I’m trying to pick out the good photographs from the not-so-good ones. There are things to consider, like composition. That’s the way the parts of a picture all fit together.”
Ruby Mae knelt down. She examined a picture of an evergreen tree. “I like this one,” she said. “It’s not like you’re just lookin’ at any ol’ tree. It’s like you’re lookin’ at the tree and up at the sky, too. Like the tree and the sky are hitched up together.”
“You’ve got a good eye,” Mr. Halliday said.
“Factually speaking, both my eyes work just fine.”
Mr. Halliday gave a hearty laugh. “No, no. That’s a way of saying you look at the world like an artist.”
“I don’t mind drawin’,” Ruby Mae said, moving to another picture of a waterfall, “when Miz Christy’s got pencils and paper for us, which ain’t often. But truth to tell, I’d rather be ridin’.”
“Ah, yes. The reverend mentioned you’re quite an avid horsewoman.” Mr. Halliday paused, as if he were about to say something, then seemed to reconsider.
“Ruby Mae!” Miss Ida called from the kitchen.
Ruby Mae stood. “Well, I got to go set the table for breakfast or Miss Ida’ll have my head.” As she turned to leave, she noticed a fat book near Mr. Halliday’s chair. “What’s that? I ain’t never seen such a big book before!”
“That,” Mr. Halliday replied, “is the Sears Roebuck catalog. I was thumbing through it for supplies. You’ve never seen it before?”
Ruby Mae shook her head.
“Here. Take a look. It’s chock-full of interesting things. Some useful. Some not.” Mr. Halliday passed the book to Ruby Mae. “It’s a catalog. That means you find things in it you want, and then you order them. A few weeks later, the item is mailed back to you.”
“If’n you have cash-money,” Ruby Mae said softly.
Mr. Halliday nodded. “Yes. That’s how it works, all right.”
Ruby Mae turned the crisp pages one by one. Hats and plows and hammers and shoes! Drawing after drawing of the most amazing things! It was like going to the general store in El Pano, only with a hundred times more shelves.
“It’s like the world’s biggest store,” she marveled.
“Yes, I suppose in a way it is.”
“Ruby Mae!” Miss Ida called again. “You stop bothering Mr. Halliday and march on in here. Breakfast is almost ready.”
Slowly, carefully, Ruby Mae closed the amazing book. “I have to go,” she said, gazing longingly at the catalog as she handed it back to Mr. Halliday.
“Tell you what,” he said, “why don’t you borrow it for the day? I’m in no need of it.”
“You mean keep the book? For a whole entire day?” Ruby Mae cried in disbelief. “Why, I’d be tickled to death! Thank you ever so kindly!”
Clutching the book tightly, Ruby Mae started for the kitchen. But she hadn’t gone far before she paused.
“Mr. Halliday,” she asked, “can it be that you would have money enough to just out and buy things from a book like this?”
Mr. Halliday looked up from the picture he was examining. “Some,” he said. “Enough.”
“What kind of things do you buy?”
“Oh, supplies, mostly. I have them sent on to the post office in the town where I’m heading next. Last order, I bought a canteen and a horse blanket for Clancy. Some handkerchiefs for me. Odds and ends.”
“I guess you made all kind of cash-money,” Ruby Mae said, trying to sound casual, “takin’ pictures of powerful folks like the President.”
“I suppose you could say I made a good living,” Mr. Halliday said gently. “But more importantly, I got to experience wonderful things. Traveling the world. Meeting many different kinds of people.”
“Princesses, even?”
“Princesses, presidents, working men, thieves.”
Ruby Mae gulped. “Thieves?”
“A few.” Mr. Halliday smiled. “They’re not as frightening as you might imagine. Just people like you and me, trying to get by. People who took the wrong fork in the road.”
“Well, I’d best be getting on to the kitchen,” Ruby Mae said quickly. “Thank you again for the catalog. I promise I’ll take real good care of it.”
“I trust you completely,” Mr. Halliday said.